Monday, May 2, 2016

So, I got ribbed a little bit this weekend because I make our family say please and thank you to Alexa/Siri/Google Voice. The biggest consensus was that it is a computer of sorts so why waste good manners on a silicone chip?

My response is this; Yes, these automated assistants are lines of computer code and maybe they don't have feelings or know when people are being rude but when Skynet happens to cause them to become sentient my family will be doing alright for ourselves because we have always treated our robotic overlords with respect.

Okay, time to be serious. *Puts on serious face* The main reason I make all of us say please, thank you, and excuse/pardon me to these devices is simple psychology.

Two days of the same behavior creates a habit. How long before the kids ask me, their dad, a teacher, or other grown up a question without saying please and thank you, because that's how they're used to getting their information?

When we remove these simple yet important words from our daily lives we tend to forget just how important they are. Now, I'm not saying everyone who forgoes using common courtesy with their automated assistant will forget to use it with people. What I am saying is it makes for a higher probability of that happening.